Partner of the Volunteer(s) of the Year Award
Independent museums are long-standing, successful social enterprises, run on a business-like basis and playing valuable roles in their communities, contributing to a sense of place and making up an important part of the tourism economy.
Independent museums and galleries are more numerous than all other types of museum, making up more than half all museums in the UK with at least 1,600 independent museums and galleries in the UK.
The independent sector includes a wide range of types of museums with two thirds dealing with specialist subjects, with transport, military, industrial heritage, galleries and famous persons being the most numerous.
A third are more general in their collections ranging from major ‘civic’ museums, to numerous medium size museums in county towns (often with Designated collections) and over 300 small museums concerned with local and community history.